Best web site provider

[Michael Davis]

I have received recommendations for two web site providers for my business web site. They are "Investor Carrot" and "Lead Propeller".  Which of these do the Bigger Pockets members consider best, or is there another that is better?  I need to get the most bang for my buck, as funds are limited.

[Matt Bowler]

@Michael Davis I have Investor Carrot as of about 2 months ago and some things are great and others drive me nuts. Are you in a situation where the cost of one of these websites won't be a problem for you? If so, then the extras that these system provide can be nice. If price is a concern, then I agree with Antoine that you can put this off for a bit. In any case, I'll throw out another that I wish I would have seen when I was shopping around. That is REI Blackbook.

I haven't looked into Lead Propeller, but here is how I would compare the other two at a high level.

Investor Carrot = HIGHLY SEO optimized with a lot of add-on packages and support to scale that out even further. TONs of ongoing education available too. Not so focused on simplifying the "other" parts of the business and so far in my experience doesn't have a super impressive integration into any CRM you might use in the future (eg. Podio). Zapier will be needed for that.  Integration to mail service seems a little better.

REI Blackbook - I can't knock it for anything since I don't use it, but it APPEARS to have a larger focus on making the end-to-end investing process a little smoother by offering some back-end toolsets and automation throughout the deal process. I've been impressed by some of the sites my competition has put out with this and it's apparent that it's doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to putting out a feature page for a property you are selling.

In my opinion it would be harder to "operationalize" a Carrot site than it would be to optimize SEO on an REI Blackbook (or any other) site. On the opposite side of that coin, if you are a purist, you may not want bundled functionality.

The real bottom-line here though is to just get going...then get better.  Pick one, then switch if you need to. Your perfect solution today will most definitely not be ideal in the future.